I love that word. It’s like music to my ears! And every time it happens, my day get just a bit brighter. But before we get too deep into it, let’s take a second to define conversion. According to MarketingSherpa, the word means:

“The point at which a recipient of a marketing message performs a desired action.”

And it really is as simple as that!

People like to place a lot of pressure on themselves when it comes to conversions, but it really can happen in the most simple of things. Here are a few examples:

When I post this blog to social media, you click it and start reading – conversion.

When you see my awesome eBook in the sidebar and download it – conversion.

When I email you about my services and you purchase them – conversion.

They’re all important, from the least to the greatest. Why? Because they’re all engaging with you and helping me build credibility, authority and – most of all – a relationship.

So, don’t get overwhelmed by the idea of a conversion funnel. It’s simply the process you setup to make conversions happen. In today’s article, I’m going to help you set up a strong one that helps you gain traffic, increase your ranking and land clients.

Step 1: Attract the Right People

Some people will argue that you want to fill up your funnel as fast as possible, with little regard to who is actually entering the system. But I disagree. True success – with anything that you do in business – is quality over quantity.

Instead of looking for the most leads, you want to look for the best leads

In my experience, this happens through some highly targeted content. If you’re creating content for your ideal customer, they’ll be enticed to read it, engage and convert.

Action Step: Take 10 minutes to write a detailed overview of your perfect client. Who are they? What do they do? When do they need services like yours? Where do they spend their time online? Why would they convert?

Step 2: Craft Strong Content

Once you have a detailed client profile, it’s time to create content for them. When we think about the phrase content is king, our minds tend to go to blogging. However, there are plenty of ways to engage your audience. The basics types of content are:

Written

Videos

Audio

Graphics

Images

As platforms like YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat continue to grow in size, it’s important to think beyond more common things like blogging. High quality engagement comes in many shapes and forms. So, if you feel like writing isn’t your strong suit, try something else.

In 2016, there’s no excuse for not publishing great content!

Action Step: Sit down and write 12 titles about topics you could talk about with authority. Once you have the titles, decide which media type you’ll use to create it. Don’t feel pigeonholed to stick to one thing. Feel free to branch out into many areas depending on your strengths.

Step 3: Draw Them to Action

It’s not enough to just have an understanding of your audience or to produce content on a regular basis. To start converting, you first need engagement. And that comes when you draw them to action.

One of the most common ways to entice? Strong headlines.

Whether you’re promoting a blog post, eBook or new product, getting users to click all comes down to your copywriting. Write a great headline, gain clicks, fill your funnel.

Action Step: Study popular formulas for blog post headlines, as well as basic copywriting fundamentals. The stronger your writing becomes, the more power you’ll have to convert casual viewers into real customers.

Step 4: Go Behind-the-Scenes

To recap, you know your audience, have created great content and enticed them to click on your headline. At this point, they’re on your landing page – whether that’s your most recent blog post or a page you specifically created for driving leads.

If you’ve communicated in an engaging way, you’ll start converting leads to your email list. And that’s where the real fun begins!

Once they’ve made that initial conversion to your email list, it’s time for the next part. You’ll develop a conversion process that happens behind-the-scenes – that is, not in the public arenas of your brand. To execute this properly, you’ll need:

Strategic series of emails.

Exclusive content for subscribers.

Regular and consistent interaction.

Your emails could be as simple as a newsletter or as elaborate as an autoresponder course. Each email should include exclusive content, but you can also provide exclusive content through things like webinars promoted solely to your list.

Doing this on a regular basis is a sure-fire way to start converting subscribers into customers.

Action Step: Sketch out a basic series of emails that you can send to new list subscribers for the first 6-8 weeks. Remember to make it strategic, exclusive and consistent for best results.

Conclusion

And there you have it, my friends!

Each of these 4 steps will work together to help you increase traffic, rankings and clients. It’s not enough to haphazardly publish content just to say you did it. You’ve got to plan it out and entice people into funnel.

Make it a well-oiled machine and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the results!

About Emily Journey

Hi, I'm Emily. I provide virtual and in-person WordPress training throughout the United States. I am the author of Unlocking WordPress, a guide filled with practical tips for WordPress beginners. I love helping business owners leverage technology to increase sales and social impact. I write, speak, and coach full-time.

Your Website Management Team

Rachel Pfanz and Emily Journey lead the WP Artisans team. They enjoy helping business owners leverage technology to increase sales and social impact.

What People Are Saying

WP Artisans has managed our website for 3 years and at least 80% of our business has come from the website they developed and manage for us. We’ve tried print, radio and online ads, but nothing compares to a website that is functional, well designed, and at the top of the list. WP Artisans knows how to do this and the web site is the single biggest reason we have grown from 3 planes to six planes in just two years."

Pat Rooney, Owner, Sundowner Aviation

Emily Journey and WP Artisans are not only the "Real Deal" when it comes to website management and SEO but are also incredibly knowledgeable, experts in what they do and good people! They completely redid our two websites www.ezshelf.com and www.brillseat.com. We previously tried numerous other firms some from India, others with an office here and work done in Eastern Europe, and others - our website prior to WP Artisans was a hodge-podge of hard coding, and over 39 plugins. It was impossible for us to maintain the websites by ourselves and SEO was like a secret language only our previous consultants knew. Emily and WP Artisans are committed to removing the curtain hiding the "Wizard of Oz" and to empowering individuals and companies to take back their website and marketing.

David Jablow, Founding Partner, EZShelf and BrillSeat

Emily manages my real estate website and is a great person to work with! She is always quick to respond to maintenance requests and she goes above and beyond so my website ensures the success of my business. I highly recommend her services!

Adam Knolls, Real Estate Broker, RE/MAX Revealty

Emily does a terrific job managing our Capital List web site! Not only does she provide extraordinary service but she also does a great job on coaching you about how to improve traffic. We've had several web sites over the years and Emily has been the very best person to work with on this vital part of our business.

This website is not affiliated with or sponsored by Automattic, Inc., The WordPress Foundation, or the WordPress Open Source Project.

In the spirit of full disclosure, some of the links on my site are affiliate links, which means that I may get a small commission if you decide to purchase anything from recommended companies. I only recommend products & systems that I use and love myself, so I know you’ll be in good hands.